Posted by Herman
on 5/2/2009, 10:30 am, in reply to "Re: More Facts"
"Moscow's Efforts" were not so evangelical as popular ideas would say. Further, Moscow currently maintains or at least "supports" two of the non-OCA jurisdictions in the US - ROCOR and the Patriarchal parishes. Both of which are seen to be permanent, and contribute to the irregular situation there.
The presence of ROCOR in the US was never (to my knowledge) envisioned by Moscow. It was a temporary solution to a serious issue that took on a life of its own due to some rather complicated history. To say Moscow "maintains" or even "supports" ROCOR is a stretch. In the current state of affairs they really don't have much ability to say much of anything since ROCOR is rather self-supporting and has been for decades and all we can do at present is rejoice that relations have been reestablished. How it develops from here is anyone's guess. The Metropolia is another matter, but again it is not simple. Many parishes simply refused to leave the MP and of course the calendar issue did not help the situation at all. Again, it will no doubt be interesting to see how all this works itself out.
Africa was already a partiarchal territory, and the EP was simply responding to needs that Alexandria wasn't able to meet in nations where Alexandria had no physical presence. There weren't the plethora of competing claims, and the EP was simply providing temporary oversight. North America was and is a different situation.
North America is certainly a unique situation. The Greeks of course have always done their own thing since the beginning, regardless and no doubt will continue to do so. That does not mean it is, was, or should be "different". Fr. Herbel certainly has an interesting slant on things, but needless to say I don't agree with everything he has written. We never have been a "united" church or singular jurisdiction. Yes the mess is uncanonical, Duh. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be working to achieve the vision regardless. The question is less about how we got into this mess and more about how do we get out of it.
As to name changes, perhaps our Lord should not have told Saul to change his name? Or why couldn't Abram continue as Abram? Is it "required"? Obviously not, but neither is it forbidden. You run into some interesting practices from parish to parish, but I don't see it as an OCA "enforced" practice. Russophiles and Hellenophiles don't do evangelization any favors, that we can agree on.
Herman
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